music
record reviews
mm:— The Young Offenders
cience Fiction EP (Columbia) w at Six short, sharp shocks from these bratty, punkoid glamsters who, like an unruly child failing to pin the tail on the donkey at a birthday party, prove that enthusrasm is no substitute for ability. (PR)
Ian Brown
Can’t See Me (Polydor) w * air
The stand-out track from monkey boy’s album has been specially mixed to make you, the kids, do the funky gibbon till you fall out the tree. Bacon and Quarmby’s remix sounds a bit like the Roses' ’Begging You’ which, since it features both Reni and Mani, ain’t that surprising (PR)
Velocette
Spoiled Children (Wiiija) a a is 1*
It's important that you buy this single so Velocette can afford to spend the Winter months indoors with a sun- Iarnp, a sandprt and a Beach Boys box set Actually, you should buy it because it’s a glorious sunbeam of upbeat, cosmopolitan pop that bears cornparision With the peerless Stereolab (PR)
Ganger
With Tongues Twisting Words (Domino) 2.6: s: w
Ganger are the sort of band who inspire spontaneous outbreaks of chin- stroking among stunted men wrth thick-rimmed glasses and poorly realised faCial hair The truth is ’With Tongues Tv-r'isting Words' is an idiosyncratic, largely instrumental beastie \‘.’llll a groove big enough for all those funky folks from the Run DMC vrdeo to breakdance in. (PR)
Girls Against Boys
Park Avenue (Geffen) as:
You could be tearing down neon-
: soaked Noo Yawk streets in a midnight-black liino and this might sound cool, but listen tort while trundling towards Paisley in a clapped-out Vauxhall at lunchtime, and you'll appreciate that it’s the kind of cartoon goth toss that weirch struggle for a place on the Crew soundtrack (FR)
Hillman Minx Heavens Above (Mercury) * 4r
Allegedly influenced by Serge Gainsbourg, Bowie, Elvis and the Flaming Lips, Hillman Minx sound like a kind of Britpop ABC, and the fact that their song's about obsessive wanking doesn’t help matters (PR)
A
Sing-A-Long (London) air st
It's meant to be infectiously catchy and has a certain wired pop charm like Jane's Addiction covering The Monkees, but 'Sing-A-Long' sounds a little too contrived and lacking in conviction to be really contagious. A is for almost. (PR)
Arnold
Fishsounds (Creation) i: 1r *
Not unlike Neil Young or Teenage Fanclub at their most languid, Arnold have pulled a warm gem of a single out of the sun-bleached baseball cap. Pleasingly mellow acoustic signatures play nicely with triple harmonies to create a song for summer twilights. (PR)
Hefner
Love Will Destroy Us In The End (Too Pure) it it 4r it
They’re great, Hefner. The tracks on this srngle were recorded in Glasgow and sound like Talking Heads covered by Sebadoh, or the Palace Brothers fronted by Stuart Murdoch. ’Cigarettes are excellent’ they inform us on the sleeve. They would know. (PR)
Electrasy
Lost In Space (MCA) w 1r at
Upbeat indie pop with nifty fairground riff much beloved of Jo Whiley and Chris Evans, whose patronage should see this blast into the charts. There's a lot less to ’Lost In Space’ than meets the ear, but it's pretty inoffenSive for all that. (PR)
Abra Moore
Four Leaf Clover (Arista) air it a? Meaningful-sounding country-tinged melodic rock from rich-kid boho Abra Moore, who is probably gonna be huge. Imgine Alanrs wrthout the dodgy pop past or a kookier Sheryl Crow. Cool transparent CD, but. (PR)
Lynden David Hall
Crescent Moon (Cooltempo) a it t
3 Oh, sure, it’s very pleasant 'n'all, but is
ROCK The Delgados
Peloton (Chemikal Underground) 1r * at it If you too had The Delgados down as a bunch of lo-fi chancers who happened to run a pretty cool record label, then here comes an album to
kick your complacent arse.
Eschewing that obscurer-than-thou creed much loved of Glasgow's indie- shmindie fraternity, Peloton truly reeks of ambition. Creatively speaking. From cosmic lullabies with orchestral strings attached ('Everything Goes Round The Water', ’T he Actress') to sonic confusion with cat-worrying properties ('Repeat Failure'); The Delgados' second long-player is pop with an exclamation mark. Biff, bang and pow.
Joy, ennui, sexual intrigue, pleasure beaches, existentia'lism, bicycles - all life is here, or maybe this is just another collection of songs about chocolate and girls/boys. A sweet mystery either way. If it’s references you require, then go visit a library. Okay, there's a dash of Throwing Muses, a soupcon of Luna, a wink in the direction of The Velvet Underground; a damned fine record in other words. John Peel lauds them as the best band in Britain right now, but let us not be too hasty. One suspects their best is still to come. (RE)
this bloodless, sexless sound really the future of British R&B? Lynden can croon like a good 'un, but he has a rather annoying whoop in his voice and sounds too nice for this raunch game. (PR)
Pulp
A Little Soul (Island) a a
In which El Jarvo goes all Memphis and heartfelt as he imagines his dad apologising for not being around when he were a kid. Pulp’s worst Single for a good while rs more than saved by the New Labour-bashing ’Cocaine Sooalism' on the flip, which comes on like ’Coinmon People' ready to kick Peter Mandelson in the Millennium Domes. (PR)
Residential ‘43 r! or British hip hop has always had
problems being taken seriously, probably because it's always Judged on American terms. This anti-racist rap is actually a pretty decent effort, gritty Northern vocals vying \‘-.’|lil a s0ulful, uplifting chorus and not one single 'ho' (PR)
Cartoon
Fade Away (Shrine) x s‘c “k
The terrible name, the terrible title, the terrible sleeve — everything pointed to this being some awful, brattrsh thrash And yet ’Fade Away‘ is actually a surprisingly emotive . chunk of listenahle power pop. That's all folks. (PR)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Brian Donaldson, Rodger Evans, Damien Love, Alastair lvlabbott, Kenny lvlathieson, Alan lvlorrison, Peter RoSs, Fiona Shepherd, Lawne Thomas
roster.
. Get your own Junior Boys 0wn goodies
_‘ You'll be hearing the phrase ’ten years of dance' rather a lot over the next few months ’~ but no matter how tired you get of hearing peOple dribbling on about the first time they dropped E, you’ll never tire of listening to this collection of tracks from the Junior Boys Own
A Perspective 7988—7998 features 21 unreleased tracks, long deleted tracks, Chemical Brothers numbers (Pictured left) and the new Underworld single 'Moaner’. It's a cracking collection and in the words of JBO, they've put ’these tracks together for no other reason than we think they make (Or a fuck off party that anyone can join in’.
We agree. We have a copy of the collection along wrth two very desirable JBO T-shirts and ‘ a JBO toggle bag to the lucky person who can answer this;
v‘ What was the name of the first Underworld album?
1 Answers on a postcard by Fri 26 Jun. -' ' Mark them: 180 com, The List, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE.
JIIII
48 THE lIST ll—ZS Jun I998